I love two-strokes! I race them, fix them, restore them and promote them. There are always a heard of two-stroke machines in my workshop every month.
One problem when fixing or restoring two-stroke bikes is rusty exhaust pipes They are such a pain to get cleaned up. I’ve tried sanding them which takes too long, requires hours and a ton of elbow grease.
How stupid are we? Don’t answer that. Instead, let’s analyze the facts and, if possible, fix the blame on someone other than ourselves. MXA’s first choice is always the AMA when it comes to looking for a scapegoat, followed by the government, manufacturers, marketing men, and if all else fails—the Eskimos.
What’s the problem? The problem is that somehow we went from racing technologically advanced, cheap and easy-to-maintain two-strokes to a world dominated by complicated, heavy, expensive and impossible-to-work-on four-strokes.
In the blame game, the AMA played their part by writing a rules package that allowed oversize four-strokes to compete against undersized two-strokes. If pressed, the AMA will point the finger at the government and claim that the EPA was putting pressure on them to cut emissions (even though the rules do not apply to closed-course motorcycles). Meanwhile, all the major manufacturers signed off on the AMA’s four-stroke exemption rule because they didn’t think that a thumper would ever be competitive against a two-stroke, even if it was twice as large. Of course, the advertising agencies over-sold four-strokes to the masses, and the public, that’s us, lapped it up. Nobody wants to be behind the times, and suddenly two-strokes were old school and four-strokes were cutting edge (and even if that is so far from the truth that it is laughable, no one laughed). Who is really to blame for our four-stroke future? All of us…stupid incorporated. But since we don’t want to take responsibility for this fiasco, we’ve decided to pin the blame on the Eskimos.
The Eskimos may look innocent in all of this, but the sport needs a fall guy who won’t complain.
So here we sit in 2009 with bike prices rocketing skyward, used bike prices plummeting downward, average repair bills that could finance a vacation to Tahiti, and electronic technology that takes all control away from the owner/operator. Are you happy yet?
With only two 250cc two-stroke brands left on the showroom floors (KTM and Yamaha), the MXA wrecking crew took a close look at the 2009 YZ250. Could buying one of these mean you’re smarter than the average guy?
Please click on the following link to read the rest of the test. http://www.motocrossactionmag.com
Photo and article exerpt from Motocross Action.
